"I’ll leave a plate in the fridge for you." Anita’s eyes bored into her, as if accounting for every pound that had dropped from Kess’ frame. "You’ve lost some weight. You need to take better care of yourself."
Kess shrugged, her default answer for anything she didn’t want to talk about. She knew she’d lost weight recently; it was one of the costs of not changing when she should. As the moon disappeared, her body required more and more food to power the change that was to come and Kess didn’t have that kind of cash. She always got a free meal for each shift that she worked, and she tried to order the biggest piece of meat on the menu at any given time, but that, combined with gorging on sausages at breakfast, still wasn’t nearly enough. She planned to bag a deer tonight if she could scent one and that would go a long way to setting things to rights. Raw meat always did.
"Thanks, Anita. See you in the morning." Anita waved a floured hand and Kess headed out.
She followed Anita’s directions, making sure she was at least at half a tank, before turning right onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. There weren’t lights out here, so she flipped on her high beams, fairly certain that there wouldn’t be a lot of cars out here now that night had fallen. It was hard to appreciate the beautiful mountain vista in the dark. She skimmed past the first overlook she came too, choosing to continue on in the hopes of finding an area that wasn’t quite as open.
She drove for a couple of miles before pulling over to the left onto a graveled half circle off of the parkway. Kess sat for a minute, gathering her thoughts. The view would have been breathtaking in daylight, the open space between mountains and trees and limitless sable sky yawning like a great mouth in the darkness, broken only by the faint light of the few stars that had begun to appear. Kess resolved to come back when she had a day off and enjoy everything the view had to offer during sunlit hours.
Kess locked the car up, then ran across the road and into the woods on the other side. She walked along a well trod path for a few minutes before leaving it to push deeper into the woods. She made her way along what she thought was a small game trail, trying to put as much distance between herself and the road until she felt far enough in that it was safe. She could hear the faint gurgle of a stream flowing over stone farther ahead and to the right. Kess stopped and began to strip down next to a large outcropping of boulders that marked the border of the stream. She placed her clothes behind the rock on the stream side, walked forward several feet and crouched, allowing the change to take her.
It was painful and pleasurable all at once. As her body morphed and shifted, sparks seemed to snap all along her muscles, the pain intense but bearable and over quickly, followed by a feeling of heat that slid across her bones as they melded and lengthened. There was a tightening in her skin, like a maddening itch spreading across it. The process took several minutes—it would have taken less time if she’d been properly fed and been in better practice—and when it was over, she looked out at the suddenly clear forest through the eyes of a black leopard.
It was good to be in this shape again. She didn't have the same concerns as human Kess. She could put aside thoughts about Cormac and longing and running and just be something else for a little while. Instead of trying to plan for every eventuality, of having to agonize over every decision, she could just give herself over to instincts. She was grounded in the physical and it was a relief.
Kess padded over to a tree and stretched upwards, dragging her claws down the rough bark, the wood peeling down in curlicues. She rubbed up against the tree, its roughness digging into her soft, short fur. Her senses were amped to the extreme in leopard form and her instincts were unbound—she always marveled that she never lost the thinking part of herself when she was in animal form; it just took a backseat. Scent and hearing ruled. She could reason, but it was the animal hungers that drove her. Now, the hunt called her and from the myriad scents of the forest and earth, she picked out the one she wanted to track: deer.
She moved through the forest quietly, pausing to catch the scent again and determine where the wind was coming from. The darkness was no hindrance to her--her whiskers and eyebrows were long and incredibly sensitive, serving to guide her as much as her eyes. Her paws moved silently over the ground, the large pads enveloped in thick fur that allowed her to move soundlessly through the woods. She moved forward slowly as the scent of the deer grew stronger, taking care so she didn’t miss out on her meal. She was fast, but she wasn't built for a long chase. She slunk closer. When the deer was in sight, she crouched, creeping in as close as she dared. It was a young male, if the size was any indication.
Kess saw the buck’s head come up and she leapt at it, hitting it with her claws across the rump. Her weight threw it sideways but she buried her claws in its shoulder, clamping onto its throat with her powerful jaws to strangle it. She held on as it fell, digging in with both sets of claws as it struggled, until it finally stilled. She didn’t release her jaws from its throat until she was sure it was dead, even though she’d stopped hearing a heartbeat a few moments before. It only took a few minutes to open up the young buck and hollow him out with her teeth.
She dragged it to the base of a large tree. Using the muscles in her shoulders and front legs, she pulled herself and the deer up the tree. She paused to get a better grip with her back legs then lunged upwards again, then again and again. She walked out on a horizontal limb, carrying the carcass in her mouth. There she deposited the deer, letting it flop onto a web of pine branches. Then she settled down so she could eat her kill in peace.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cormac was on his way back from the latest build site. Fridays were supposed to be his study day, but his father had needed an extra hand in order to stay on schedule. He’d wanted to finish the roof before a round of rain and snow came in. This was the last house they’d be building this year; it was too dangerous and costly to build the huge log cabins in January and February. Of course, it didn’t mean they were idle. They would still clear land slated for development and mill the timber from it, in preparation for the spring building season.
He was heading home in his Jeep, tired from a long day of stabilizing heavy roof timbers and general carting and toting building supplies around the site. He didn’t mind the work, but it seemed like his father was trying more and more to pull him into the business side of things, which while fine, wasn’t what he necessarily envisioned himself doing. He wanted to build things, yes, but bigger things than custom log homes--mountain mansions really--for those special few who could afford it. He loved bridges and large open spaces, cleanly designed. He hoped to incorporate his buildings with nature, much like Frank Lloyd Wright did with his Falling Water house--one of Cormac’s favorite architectural accomplishments.
His classes were done, and exams would be starting next week. He knew he’d done well this semester, as he always did, and he’d gotten registered for all of his spring classes. His older brother and his family were coming up in a few weeks to join them for Christmas and he planned to talk to him about the best way to handle their father’s ongoing lectures--the ones Cormac liked to refer to as the How You Should Live Your Life series. He was happy his dad didn’t know about his girl troubles; he could only imagine the talks those would generate.
He'd been staying away from the Barn lately. Burke and Finn hadn't said anything about it, but he knew they noticed. He was trying to give Kess the space she needed to figure things out for herself. He didn't want to push her into anything. He thought they had the potential for something pretty great, but she didn't seem to want to admit it. He would still swing by every once in a while, but it had been easier to avoid the place with the flurry of studying for finals.
The coffee date with Kess had been a lot of fun and he knew that she had felt the same. He couldn't understand why she kept backing away from him. She'd open herself up a little, put herself out there, and then shut him down completely. He wondered if it was a previous bad relationship that made her so gun-shy. It would c
ertainly explain the fear and mistrust.
If he was truthful about it, it was as much for himself as for her that he stayed away from the Barn. It was kind of hard to see her and not want to sit down and talk to her. He wasn't worried about Kess not being a were--Burke's girlfriend Lindsay wasn't and she was accepted into the family, so he knew it wouldn't be an issue on his side. It wasn't ideal, but it wasn't a deal-breaker either. Unfortunately, it looked like he'd never get the opportunity to find out if it could work out since she seemed so determined to strangle whatever it was between them before it could really get started.
Cormac was passing one of the many overlooks that liberally spotted the mountainside when his headlights illuminated a familiar blue compact car sitting there. He made a U-turn to check and he was almost positive it was Kess' car. She'd traded in the California plates for local ones since the last time he’d walked her out to the Barn’s parking lot at the end of her shift, but everything else was the same. He parked his Jeep next to her car and got out.
She wasn’t in her car. He took a quick look at it and didn’t see anything wrong with it--no flat tires, no leaking oil. He tried the doors and found them locked, then placed his hand on the hood. It was cold. With the temperature dropping so fast now that full night had fallen, that didn’t tell him much except that she could have been out here for a while. That was a deeply stupid idea in early December, especially when you didn’t know the area really well--or, like, at all.
Cormac opened up his senses a bit more, letting his wolf-self come further to the fore, and the first thing he caught was smell. He let his nose lead him across the road and into the underbrush, then followed her scent as it beckoned him deeper into the woods. As he walked he noticed that her scent remained constant. He didn’t pick up the acrid undertone of fear that would indicate she had been coerced out here. He didn’t see broken branches or anything that indicated she was panicked or lost when she came through here. Cormac kept going, walking at a steady pace in the darkness, following where his nose led. He knew almost every stretch of forested land on this side of the mountain.
When he came to some rocks that bordered a stream, he stopped. The scent was stronger here so he leaned over to see if she may have rested. With his heightened vision, he found her clothes and shoes folded neatly in a pile behind one of the larger boulders. He sat down for a second. He’d run into some of the New Age wiccans that liked to get back to nature and preferred to practice outdoors. Some chose to do it naked. Granted, it wasn’t usually in December, but he didn’t make it his business to know wiccan worship. A lot of strange people came up to these mountains, but he never would have picked Kess for a skyclad. She was way too uptight. Still, she did come from California….
He wasn’t sure what to do now. Keep going to make sure everything was okay? Leave her to it--whatever it was--and maybe read about a frozen naked wiccan that died of exposure in the paper in a week? Cormac took another look at the neat pile of clothes, running a hand through his hair and rubbing his neck. It was a nervous habit.
The wind shifted, and Cormac made his decision. He'd continue tracking her, just to make sure she was okay, then he'd head back. He didn't want to startle her and certainly didn't want to intrude, so he made another decision--things would go much better if he happened upon her as a wolf. He could always run away, acting the scared wild animal and that wouldn't make things awkward between them if he happened upon her naked, as a human. With that resolved, he began to quickly strip down himself, placing his clothes off to the side of the trail. And focused on all things wolf within him.
The change was quick, like it always was, but more painful. The night held no moon, the phase time when wolves were at their weakest. The full moon was when he and his pack raced through the woods, the light from its fullness singing through their veins. Like all werewolves, he could change at any time, but not without a physical cost. He shook as the change finished, anxious to be gone.
The smell was more intense as a wolf. The sweet, spicy smell of Kess was intoxicating; it made him think of beaches and suntan lotion and snickerdoodle cookies. He filled his nose with her scent. Cormac took off, nose low, padding quickly through the forest. After a few hundred yards, he stopped. Kess' scent faded out, leaving him with no idea where she went. It was possible she had doubled back, but then why were her clothes still there? Cormac decided to continue on, to be sure Kess was okay. It was possible he'd pick her scent back up.
He’d been loping through the trees for quite awhile, intent on trying to find the girl, when a new scent overpowered everything else: blood. The meaty red smell blotted out everything. Cormac ghosted ahead, ears pricked forward, listening for anything that would give away Kess' presence. Maybe something had found her way out here, although he was most likely the only predator—aside from the odd black bear—in these woods. But she still could have gotten hurt. He feared he was too late to help her if she had gotten into trouble, astounded at the gulf of feeling that opened up within him at the thought of her injured--or worse. He told himself that he had only met the girl a couple of times, it wasn’t like he had any special bond to her. It didn’t help.
He stopped near a pine tree, where the scent was strongest and looked up. A low growl of warning sounded from a black shape perched up in the branches with a half-eaten deer. His lips curled back in a snarl, hackles rising to the challenge. He answered the growl with one of his own. He saw the creature shift, pulling its feet under itself, and he howled out a challenge.
The head of the beast turned toward him and he was held by the sight of green-gold eyes like the ones that had become so familiar in the last few weeks. Kess? he thought incredulously. Then the cat was springing past him, a little piece of night cut loose from the larger fabric around them.
He gave chase. Wolves were built for the chase, sometimes following prey for miles. Wolves hunted in a pack or alone, taking down much larger animals by tearing at their hindquarters, weakening the animal until it could be pulled down. He had no intention of killing the cat, but that didn't mean he was just going to let it go. He bounded after it.
The cat was fast--which surprised him considering how heavily built it looked--strafing through low brush and pushing off tree trunks, changing direction on a dime. He pounded on, not as agile as the cat, but fast enough and he knew these woods, knew where they’d end up and wasn’t worried. It was exhilarating, the chase, the hunt, racing through ink-dark woods in pursuit of something new and he reveled in it. Kess or not, it was the some of the most fun he’d had in weeks.
The cat was taking him deeper into the woods, towards Crystal Peak Falls. It was pretty tame as far as falls went, maybe three stories high, but hikers and climbers loved to climb it and jump off. Cormac could already smell the water as they closed and he put on a burst of speed to bring himself closer to his quarry. The cat’s hind feet hit a patch of pine needles, causing it to scrabble off balance, giving Cormac the opening he needed. His teeth bit into its left flank, scoring a hit. The cat roared and turned back around, ears plastered to its blunt skull, lips pulled back to reveal impressive canines. It was about as big as he was, but he felt confident that he could take it in a fight.
But the eyes. Those were Kess’ eyes, he would lay money on it. It would certainly explain her hesitation to start anything up with him.
He sat down.
The cat still snarled, growling low in the back of its throat. It was backing away a little. He waited a second, pulling a back leg up to scratch at the back of his neck. He watched it to see what it would do. He saw the ears pull forward a little bit, heard the growling pause. And then, with a great leap, it disappeared into the trees and was over across the water.
He took his time going back the way he’d come, to give her plenty of time to get back to her clothes. When he padded back to his own and changed back, he gave a quick look and, sure enough, they were gone. Cormac smiled to himself and stretched widely, supremely satisfied. He had about a million questions
roiling around his head, but he was happy for now. Kess certainly wasn’t dead, as he'd feared. If what he thought was true, she was more alive than he could ever have expected.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kess had been on the edge of panic all shift. She'd been wrong that work would take her mind off of her encounter with the wolf; instead all she did was jump at every sound and flinch away from people. She'd come back from her woodland excursion last night completely exhausted and had fallen directly into bed, bloody clothes and all, and into a dark dreamless sleep. But she'd been obsessively turning over the events of last night in her head since she'd woken up this morning. And doing that was not helping her one bit.
She'd tried to order things logically in her head: she'd been out hunting, she'd run across a grey wolf, she'd run, it had chased, she'd gotten bit, she'd escaped, she'd changed and went back to the boarding house. No problems so far. Except that she'd found Cormac's scent near her clothes. Except that she'd found clothes that could have been his discarded nearby, almost as if someone had hurriedly taken them off to change. Except that it was his Jeep that had been parked next to her car.
She tried to keep calm, but her mind had been running through a thousand exit scenarios as she prepped for the lunch shift that was just about over. Kess wanted to believe that it was just a coincidence, but she knew it wasn't. Chances were good that it was a werewolf out there and that the werewolf was Cormac. The wound on her side was a confirmation; it hadn't healed up by the morning like a normal animal bite would have. Were bites healed much slower and left silvery-white scars behind. It was too soon to tell what the scar would look like, but Kess didn't think she had the time to wait and see. She needed to come to some kind of decision soon.
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